Figure 4.

CD4 T-cells present in co-transferred NOD splenocytes inhibit the engraftment of diabetogenic AI4 CD8 T-cells NSG recipient mice.

NSG mice were injected i.v. with 2.5×10⁶ NOD-AI4 splenocytes alone or admixed with either total or CD4 T-cell depleted NOD splenocytes. Recipients of CD4 depleted splenocytes were injected i.p. with 200μg of the depleting CD4 specific GK1.5 antibody once a week. The total number of CD4 T-cell depleted NOD splenocytes was adjusted to inject 2×10⁵ CD8⁺ T-cells, an equivalent amount to that in 5×10⁶ total NOD splenocytes. Another control group received only CD4 T-cell depleted NOD splenocytes. At various time points post-transfer PBL from each group of NSG recipients were analyzed by flow cytometry for numbers of AI4 T-cells (CD8⁺ TCRVα8.3⁺). Graph shows mean ± SEM. The statistics represent the significance of each group compared to controls receiving AI4 T-cells only. ns: p>0.05, *** p<0.001, two way ANOVA and Bonferroni post-test.